Thanks to my Curio & Relic license I have been acquiring more and more firearms. I used to just leave my guns underneath the bed in gun cases. I kept my Mossberg shotgun loaded and in the corner in case of a home invasion. Even though I have my concealed carry permit and am armed when I leave and return to the house, I was worried about someone gaining access to my weapons while I was away. I fixed that problem and bought a gun safe recently. Now all of my children are locked away.

Solving one problem led to another. Situation: Lady Jaye and I are asleep. Either the main, monitored alarm goes off. Maybe the secondary door and window alarms activate. The dogs jump from their sleep and start woofing. Someone’s in the house. Would I be able to get to the shotgun quickly enough?

Just like my sex life, sometimes a few extra seconds is all you need.The Master Lock 265D door security bar.

Master Lock makes an expandable door security bar that may allow me enough time to secure our bedroom door and open the safe. The 265D is very easy to use and the concept is simple. On one end of the 20-gauge steel tube is a rubber fork that goes underneath a door knob. The other end has a pivoting rubber foot that keeps the bar from sliding along the floor. Jam the fork underneath the knob, pull the tube towards the floor to expand it, and rotate the tube to lock it in place.

The rubber fork. This part goes under the door knob.

The rubber foot. It’s about two or three inches square.

This push-button locks the bar in place.

The 265D, deployed.

The bar is good to go in less than two seconds. Last night I stood outside the bedroom and had Lady Jaye shut the door and deployed the 265D. I twisted the knob and pushed against the door. It opened about an inch. I think the rubber foot needs a little shove to gain traction. It is also possible that extending the bar further away from the door may help. The directions from Master Lock suggest putting the foot about 18 inches away from the door, but if I have to use this thing in a hurry I’m not going to bust out the tape measure.

After the initial skid, the door was held firmly in place by the door security bar. I pushed on the door. I leaned on it. Lady Jaye remarked that the door was about to come off its hinges, and the door still didn’t budge. I feel like the cheap interior doors used in homes today would fail before the Master Lock 265D bar. Either the door would buckle under a severe assault or the hinges would rip from the trim.

Either way, the Master Lock 265D accomplishes exactly what I was looking for: an inexpensive, simple, easily deployed instrument that would give me another ten or fifteen seconds to get into my safe. Once I have the Mossberg 590 out, I don’t really care if someone comes through the door or not: they’re about to become a ballistics test.

You may buy the 265D from a number of sources, including Amazon.com for ~$18 before shipping. You can also find it at a brick and mortar Target, in the lock section, for about $25 plus tax.

I highly recommend the Master Lock 265D door security bar. Despite some initial foot sliding, this product does what it says. You could use this full-time or just in an emergency situation. The 265D is light and portable enough to even go with you if you travel by car and stay in a hotel.

Master Lock 265D door security bar, I lock downFour and a half out of five STFU mugs!

I think you might be a little wiser to deploy the Security Bar (and take the Mossberg out of the safe) before you go to sleep.

If someone breaks into your house, they may choose to pick the interior door, which is so quiet it might not wake you up at all. If they do, and the bar is in place, you’ll still have some time to get the gun.

Don’t underestimate the time it takes to wake up, clear your head, get free of the covers, and ready a weapon. 10-15 seconds to do all that AND get into a gun safe just won’t be enough, I fear.

I tested this thing with a 260 lb kick and the pin in the stick collapsed…so I drilled a hole straight through the stick and put a bolt and screw in. You better too. Also..to keep your front door safe and all others you may want to secure the frame with metal.